Indonesia

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Indonesia Publications  Contact: Daniel Adler

Program Overview 

 

The Justice for the Poor program in Indonesia (J4P-Indonesia) has been operating since 2003. The objective of the program is to foster innovation in overcoming constraints to the realization of legal rights that underlie equitable development, particularly those faced by poor and vulnerable groups. It aims to achieve this objective by supporting both increased community demand for better justice services and improved supply of those services by formal and informal institutions.

 

During J4P-Indonesia’s most recent strategy period (2007-2010) the program has supported important policy and operational outcomes including: (i) the development of the Government of Indonesia’s National Strategy on Access to Justice (issued in 2010); and (ii) learning from J4P-Indonesia pilot programs including those  focused on the revitalization of legal aid, women’s legal empowerment and strengthening non-state justice systems. In addition, the J4P-Indonesia team has worked on mainstreaming access to justice issues through the Government of Indonesia’s Support for Poor and Disadvantaged Areas Program (SPADA) and National Community Empowerment Program (PNPM).

 

Looking ahead, J4P-Indonesia will continue to support Government of Indonesia efforts to enhance access to justice, including through analytical and operational assistance with implementation of the National Strategy on Access to Justice. In doing so, a key challenge for the program will be to take the significant knowledge and experience gained to date, and to translate this into activities capable of delivering results on a larger scale.

 

Areas of Engagement 

 

Operational Activities

J4P-Indonesia provides technical assistance and support to the Government of Indonesia in implementing the National Strategy on Access to Justice, including through operational activities. Current activities include:

• Women’s Legal Empowerment (WLE), which works at the national level with PEKKA (the Women Headed Households Program) to promote increased awareness of rights and access to legal forums for women’s groups in eight provinces.  Multi-stakeholder forums at the district level, comprised of representatives of local justice sector institutions, provide support to the women’s groups;
• Support for Non-State Justice Systems (SNSJS), which aims to strengthen the quality of non-state village-level dispute resolution mechanisms in two provinces through developing the capacity of both providers and users of such mechanisms. It also supports policy advocacy for recognition of these dispute resolution mechanisms by both local governments and the Supreme Court;
• Integrated Community Legal Empowerment (ICLE), which is designed to strengthen the capacity of local state and community institutions to deliver justice services and resolve disputes relevant to sustaining peace and development in Aceh. This includes a focus on enhancing community legal awareness in relation to key dispute categories. An important feature of ICLE is its planned integration with PNPM structures to deliver paralegal services at the sub-district level and thereby facilitate a more effective interface between communities, government actors and the state justice system;
• Mediation and Community Legal Empowerment (MCLE), which operates in Maluku and is being implemented as a component of the Government of Indonesia’s broader Support for Poor and Disadvantaged Areas (SPADA) program. MCLE supports the settlement of disputes through both formal and informal means, particularly through the creation of legal aid posts which increase community capacity to settle disputes through mediation. It also aims to increase community trust in legal institutions;
• Revitalization of Legal Aid (RLA), which has engaged partners at the provincial level to strengthen existing community legal aid posts and support dispute resolution processes in three provinces. The program focused on the legal issues of farmers and laborers; and
• Support for the National Paralegal Working Group, which has facilitated the production of a draft policy paper on paralegalism, which in turn has served as the basis for a national paralegal summit and policy advocacy on the contents of the national Legal Aid Bill.

Analytical and Advisory Assistance

To increase the knowledge base upon which programming and policy decisions are made, J4P-Indonesia delivers a program of analytical and advisory assistance on topics relevant to increasing access to justice in Indonesia. Recent outputs and research activities include:

• Conflict and Dispute Resolution in Indonesia: Information from the 2006 Governance and Decentralization Survey, which analyses the survey data to better understand (a) national patterns of conflict and dispute resolution; (b) the use of police services and the formal legal system; and (c) connections between conflict and dispute resolution and governance factors (corruption, bribery and information about development projects);
• Forging the Middle Ground: Engaging Non-State Justice (with the Supreme Court), which identifies village-level dispute resolution mechanisms and evaluates their effectiveness from the view point of the poor and marginalized, especially women & ethnic minorities; and
• Understanding Paralegalism, which comprises support to joint research in collaboration with the Van Vallenhoven Institute at Leiden University and the Open Society Institute that will contribute to a global Justice for the Poor project to better understand the role of paralegals.

Partnership and Dialogue 

 

J4P-Indonesia works with local partners to conduct the operational and analytical activities outlined above, which in turn form the basis for evidence-based policy dialogue and reform as well as project design. Capacity development of local partners and institutions is an important element of these partnerships. Current activities include:

• Supporting the development of a National Paralegal Network, comprising the main NGOs involved in delivering paralegal programs in Indonesia;
• Working with local partners (government and NGO) to support improved information flows between local level initiatives and national policy processes; and
• Consolidating the work of donors in support of the Government of Indonesia’s National Strategy on Access to Justice.

Key J4P-Indonesia partnerships include:

• Directorate of Law and Human Rights, National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS)
• Support for Poor and Disadvantaged Areas Project (SPADA)
• National Community Empowerment Program (PNPM)
• Female Headed Household Empowerment Program (PEKKA)
• Indonesian Centre for Law and Policy Studies (PSHK)
• Rapid Agrarian Conflict Appraisal (RACA) Institute
• Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University
• Open Society Institute, Jakarta Office
• Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)
• Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Indonesia
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Indonesia Country Office